Kotaku: The Sims 3 Review: Delayed Gratification

After a more than three month delay-and more than four years on from the release of The Sims 2-The Sims 3 is finally here. So let's get down to reviewing it.

There are two types of Sims player: the Second-Life types who enjoy crafting and sharing stuff online and the God-types who look for new and interesting ways to terrorize their virtual dollies. The Sims 3 has room enough for both types in its expansive gameplay and online-feature set that lets you create and share everything from couch patterns to machinima.

The once-narrow world of the Sims has been expanded to a persistent environment where Sims can freely walk from one lot to the next, the town around them progressing instead of freezing 'til your Sim arrives on the scene. This makes the life cycle of the Sims more fluid; as your Sims grows old, so too do all the Sims around him or her. But to counter-balance the relentless flow of time, the developers have added a sixth stage of life, young adult, to the normal cycle to prolong gameplay without forcing you to buy a college-themed expansion pack.

Long six-phase life story short, The Sims 3 is packed with new and different stuff to spice up Sims gameplay we've been used to for over a decade – but here's how it stacks up as a standalone game.